UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION 

COLLEGE  OF  AGRICULTURE  Benj.  Ide  Wheeler,  President 

BERKELEY,  CALIFORNIA  Thomas  Forsyth  Hunt,  Dean  and  Director 


CIRCULAR  No.  94. 


THE  DAIRYMAN'S  RELATION  TO  QUALITY. 

By  L.  M.  Davis. 

Quality  is  the  keynote  of  a  permanent  success.  Though  the  indi- 
vidual dairyman  may  doubt  this,  its  truth  is  established  when  the  dairy 
business  of  the  whole  of  California,  present  and  future,  is  considered. 
Failure  to  realize  what  constitutes  success,  refusal  to  meet  the  obligation 
which  every  dairyman  owes  to  the  dairy  industry,  and  competition  are 
at  least  three  conditions  which  have  brought  upon  dairymen  of  this 
state  the  great  problem  of  how  quality  can  be  raised,  for  the  place  has 
been  reached  where  improved  conditions  must  prevail,  lest  the  business 
suffer  materially  through  a  more  serious  quality  situation  than  was 
anticipated  would  exist  even  at  this  time.  During  1912  an  average 
score  of  but  91^  points  was  placed  upon  over  150  lots  of  butter  sent 
to  be  scored  at  the  University  Farm  at  Davis,  and  of  this  number  less 
than  thirty  per  cent  scored  93  points,  the  requirement  for  the  highest 
market  grade  known  as  "Extras."  The  percentage  of  "Extras" 
changing  hands  on  the  principal  butter  markets  is  even  lower  than 
this,  and  less  than  ten  per  cent  of  the  butter  sold  in  these  places 
will  so  qualify.  The  cause  for  this  condition  is  the  improper  treatment 
which  milk  and  cream  receive  before  being  placed  in  the  hands  of  the 
manufacturer. 

Every  person  who  handles  milk  or  cream  knows  that  they  are  perish- 
able products,  which  require  special  care.  Failure  to  observe  the 
necessary  precautions  in  handling  these  products  must  therefore  be 
considered  as  a  disregard  of  the  principles  underlying  quality.  Were 
dairymen  to  apply  themselves  closely  in  two  particulars,  over  ninety 
per  cent  of  the  quality  troubles  would  disappear,  and  this  raised 
standard  would  be  accompanied  by  a  corresponding  gain  in  net  profits. 
Cleanliness  and  low  temperatures  are  two  features  the  abuse  of  which 
leads  to  low  grade  dairy  production.  A  large  percentage  of  the  bad 
flavors  in  milk,  cream  and  butter  are  the  result  of  dirt,  manure,  hair, 
and  flies  getting  into  milk  during  the  milking  process,  and  this  becomes 
the  more  serious  for  the  reason  that  seventy-five  per  cent  of  these  con- 
taminating materials  go  into  solution  and  can  be  removed  in  no  way, 
but  remain  to  cause  the  development  of  unfavorable  fermentations 
which  produce  bad  flavors  in  the  market  production.  The  results  of 
the  butter  scoring  contests  show  that  eighty  to  ninety  per  cent  of  the 
criticisms  made  in  California  creamery  butter  are  due  to  defective 
methods  of  handling  cream  before  it  reaches  the  creameries. 

(1) 


—  2  — 

Dairy  conditions  which  need  improvement  include  not  only  the 
maintaining  of  more  sanitary  dairy  barns,  more  attention  in  the  mat- 
ter of  cleaning  cows  previous  to  milking/ clean  milkers,  properly  con- 
structed and  cleaned  utensils  and  more  care  in  washing  separator 
bowls,  but  the  length  of  time  and  the  manner  in  which  milk  and 
cream  are  held.  Along  with  cleanliness  must  be  the  other  desirable 
feature,  low  temperatures.  While  the  market  milk  dairyman  realizes 
this  to  some  extent  on  account  of  his  product  being  more  perishable, 
the  dairyman  who  sells  cream  often  fails  to  appreciate  the  advantage 
of  cooling  cream  immediately  after  separating,  and  thus  a  condition 
most  favorable  to  deterioration  begins  to  exist  shortly  after  the  milk 
is  drawn.  Freshly  drawn  milk  is  at  an  optimum  temperature  for  bac- 
terial growth,  and  unfavorable  fermentations  can  be  checked  in  no 
better  way  than  by  immediate  cooling.  If  the  milk  is  to  be  separated, 
skimming  should  take  place  directly  after  milking,  but  the  cream 
should  be  cooled  before  being  mixed  with  previous  skimmings.  A 
tank  cooler  is  so  inexpensively  constructed  and  operated  that  there 
can  be  no  reasonable  objection  to  its  use.  Such  a  cooler  may  be  made 
from  a  box  or  barrel,  and  should  be  provided  with  an  inlet  at  the  bot- 
tom and  a  discharge  at  the  top.  Ordinary  milk  cans  are  successfully 
used  as  containers,  and  the  water  used  in  cooling  may  be  run  into  a 
stock  tank.  Low  temperatures  of  themselves  are  effective  in  helping 
preserve  quality,  but  an  ideal  product  results  when  they  are  accompa- 
nied by  cleanliness  in  production. 

Careless  practices  on  the  dairy  favor  the  adoption  of  burdensome 
regulations.  With  ideal  methods  in  use  such  would  be  eliminated, 
and  expensive,  artificial  processes,  such  as  pasteurization,  would  be 
unnecessary.  Improvement  in  the  quality  of  dairy  products  must 
begin  with  the  producer,  so  the  dairyman  holds  the  key  to  the  situa- 
tion. Every  effort  of  the  consumer,  the  distributor,  or  the  manufac- 
turer, will  work  to  his  ultimate  benefit.  Where  payment  on  the 
quality  basis  is  established,  a  premium  of  three  to  five  cents  per  pound 
of  butter  fat  is  given  for  cream  of  highest  grade.  Such  cream  can  be 
produced  best  by  paying  close  attention  to  cleanliness  and  immediate 
and  thorough  cooling.  Were  the  matter  of  quality  carried  to  the 
point  where  milk  and  cream  would  be  produced  under  conditions 
which  prevail  upon  certified  dairies,  it  would  represent  an  impossible 
expense,  for  excessive  prices  could  not  be  obtained.  But  this  extreme 
is  unnecessary,  and  the  dairy  business  of  California  would  receive  a 
wonderful  impetus  if  the  bulk  of  our  dairymen  would  but  observe  the 
conditions  which  they  know  should  prevail. 


